Covering The Inbound Tourism Industry Since 1996

Travel to Canada from USA Reaches 12-Year High

While the count of visitors from Canada to the U.S. is dropping by the millions, the latest report from Destination Canada (formerly the Canadian Tourism Commission) shows that year-to-date arrivals (through June) from its aggregate top markets grew 10 percent year-over-year. And from the United States, in June, the total of overnight visitors reached 1.67 million, the highest level for the month since June 2004.

The robust numbers, driven primarily by a weak Canadian dollar vs. other major global currencies, are across the board. Some highlights from the report follow the table below, which contains breakout data on Destination Canada’s 11 top, targeted international markets: USA, France, Germany, UK, Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and Mexico.

Arrival figures are preliminary estimates and are subject to change.

Quick notes from the table:

—In June 2016, Canada greeted 2,099,675 overnight visitors from Destination Canada’s 11 international markets. This is up 5.6 percent relative to June 2015 and is the highest number since 2007. Year-to-date overnight arrivals from DC’s 11 international markets have grown 10.2 percent to 7.0 million visitors.

—June 2016 saw Canada welcoming about 1.67 million overnight visitors from the U.S. This is the highest level of visitors for June since 2004. The June peak for U.S visitors was recorded in 2001, with about 1.86 million overnight trips. U.S. arrivals saw significant growth in air (+14.5 percent) and marginal growth in other (+0.8 percent) arrivals. However, auto arrivals (-2.2 percent) saw a decline for the first time since August 2015.

—At 7.89 million, total arrivals from all international markets halfway through the year are the highest on record, slightly surpassing the previous peak from 2001.

—June 2016 overnight arrivals from Destination Canada’s 11 international markets saw gains in all markets, with Asia-Pacific (+27.4 percent), Latin America (+12.1 percent), Europe (+7.8 percent) and the U.S. (+3.1 percent) all seeing increases. Buoyant Asia-Pacific growth in June 2016 was backed by a very strong performance from China (+48.7 percent).

—Destination Canada continues to observe growth in year-to-date arrivals in all of its target regions with Asia-Pacific (+14.6 percent) and Latin America (14.1 percent) leading the way, followed by the U.S. (+10.0 percent) and Europe (+6.5 percent).